April 7 (Bloomberg) -- A Liechtenstein banker was shot dead
after a feud involving an investment fund, and police said they
believe the alleged killer later committed suicide.

The 48-year-old man was shot in the underground garage of a
financial institution in Balzers at 7:30 a.m. local time, the
Liechtenstein police said on their website today. Neither the
victim nor the institution was identified in the statement. The
deceased was Juergen Frick, CEO of Bank Frick & Co. AG,
according to Switzerland’s Radio 1, which cited employees of his
bank.

The suspect, Juergen Hermann, fled the scene in a Smart car
with Liechtenstein license plates, according to police. The
authorities later said Hermann appears to have committed suicide
after they found the vehicle in Ruggell, 25 kilometers (16
miles) north of Balzers, with his passport and a confession.

“Service dogs were able to track the suspect to the banks
of the Rhine,” police said in a statement. “Clothing belonging
to the suspect was found there. Because of the circumstances and
the evidence, suicide has to be assumed.”

Calls to Bank Frick were answered by a voice-mail message
saying the company is closed because of “a death.” It gave no
further details. A police spokesman didn’t immediately respond
to telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Prime Minister

Bank Frick & Co., founded in 1998, specializes in wealth
management and investment advice. The firm managed about 3.5
billion Swiss francs ($3.9 billion) of assets on behalf of
clients at the end of 2012, according to its website. The
company’s chairman is Mario Frick, who was prime minister of
Liechtenstein from 1993 to 2001.

Bank Frick was previously partly owned by Bawag PSK Bank
AG, the Austrian lender that almost collapsed because of its
links with failed U.S. futures firm Refco Inc. Bawag owned 26
percent and Refco had a 4 percent holding, according to a report
by the Austrian Press Agency. After Austria led a bailout of
Bawag in 2006, the company sold its stake in Bank Frick,
according to a paper published the following year on the
European Commission’s website.

Hermann is a fund manager who has been embroiled in a
dispute with the Liechtenstein government and Bank Frick for
many years, according to Radio 1.

Hermann Finance

The Liechtenstein government and the country’s Financial
Market Authority “illegally destroyed my investment company
Hermann Finance and its funds, depriving me of my livelihood,”
according to a website registered under the name Juergen Hermann
of Hermann Finance AG.

He has filed lawsuits seeking recovery of 200 million Swiss
francs from the government and 33 million francs from Bank
Frick, according to the website. The lender “illegally enriched
itself,” among other alleged crimes, it said.

A representative of Hermann’s lawyer declined to comment
when reached by telephone. A call to an office telephone number
listed on Hermann Finance’s website was answered by an employee
of a law firm who said his company isn’t related to Hermann
Finance.

Hermann had been “publicly hostile” to the country’s
Financial Market Authority and some of its employees, forcing it
to take security measures in consultation with the police, FMA
spokesman Beat Krieger said in an e-mail today.

Liechtenstein, a country of 36,800 people wedged between
Switzerland and Austria, hasn’t seen a homicide since 2011, when
three people lost their lives to crime, police said in their
annual report. Bank Frick is one of 17 lenders in the Alpine
country, according to the Liechtenstein Banking Association.